Chapter 33 – Mis-matching

Angela and Bianca walked casually side-by-side up the path that led into the lotus garden and down the right toward the main hall. They could see a long line forming in front of the fortune-teller’s stand.
“I guess they’re getting their fair share of the deal before the weekend ends?” Angela asked.
Bianca gave Angela a slight shove, causing Angela to turn around to face her again.
“What?” Angela asked.
“We’re at a temple,” Bianca reminded her. “Show some respect and don’t utter nonsense.”
“We’re about to deceive him here. Do you think we thought about respect in the first place?”
Bianca let out a nervous laugh and turned back to the stand ahead of them.
“Do you think we should come back later?”
“There are ten more people. Want to wait and see what happens?”
Angela looked at her watch real quick.
“I’ll wait here if you don’t want to.”
“Let’s get in line then. I’m not backing down.”
Bianca smiled at Angela’s determination. She followed Angela to the line. They were glad to know that there was actually a distance between the fortune teller’s table and the line itself since they wouldn’t want others to overhear what they were going to do. There was nothing to be ashamed of if they were caught here, but they need some privacy to investigate some matters.
They waited for about another five minutes before Angela’s cell phone rang. She retrieved it from her pocket and answered it right way. Bianca waited for her to be done before turning to her.
“The guys are wondering if we got caught already,” Angela passed on to Bianca.
“Like we’re doing anything illegal,” Bianca muttered.
“They’re just impatient.”
“It’s almost our turn anyway.”
Wanting to contradict Bianca, the person in front of them took up ten minutes on purpose. Some people behind them became impatient and left. When it was finally their turn, they went together–to which the ones that were left cheer them on, causing them to exchange an amused smile before approaching the stand. Angela took the seat on the left while Bianca took the right.
“How may I help you two today?” The fortune-teller asked with a friendly smile.
“Um…we’ve been having bad lucks lately so we want to ask you when it’ll pass,” Angela rattled out casually.
The fortune-teller turned his attention toward Bianca to get a quick glimpse of her before turning back to face Angela.
“Write down your birth dates here,” The fortune-teller instructed.
Angela and Bianca wrote their names and birth dates down on the small pieces of paper before sliding it back toward the fortune teller. They waited patiently as he studied their birth dates. He started with Angela after some hesitative glances.
“You both aren’t having bad lucks of your own,” The fortune-teller said. “You’re just too concerned for a friend’s well being. As for you…” He gave his full attention to Angela before continuing. “…be careful.”Was that a threat? Angela thought to herself. She cleared her throat before speaking up. “What do you mean?”
“You should try to relax and give yourself a chance. A confession will come your way in the coming month. He might not know it right now but he will come to realize that you’re the most important person in his life. Give him some time to sort out his thoughts.”
Angela had a very confused look on her face. If she as much as muster a “Huh?”, it would’ve completed the picture of a totally clueless girl.
“You don’t believe me but you’re just here today to investigate about a matter involving your friend. Am I right?”
Angela had somehow lost her voice so Bianca took over.
“If you already know, then we want to get right to the topic,” Bianca said.
Bianca took one of the small papers in front of her and jotted down something before handing it to the fortune-teller. He took it casually at first but turned abruptly to Bianca again.
“What’s wrong, sir?” Bianca asked upon seeing his expression.
“They’re your friends?” He asked.
Both Angela and Bianca nodded in unison after exchanging a quick look, wondering silently why he was behaving this way.
“Mrs. Chu and some of her family members came earlier to ask me to match some birthdates. Their birthdates matched very well. I even congratulated her since I’ve never seen any two birthdates that match like these two.”
Angela and Bianca exchanged another confused look before speaking up again. This time, it was Angela who spoke up–since she seemed to have found her voice.
“Are you sure about this? I don’t mean to doubt you but we were told otherwise of the results.”
“I think one of your friends was also concerned for…” He took a quick glimpse at the paper. “…Miss Sui so she personally took the birthdates for me to see beforehand.”
“What friend?” Angela asked.
“I don’t know her name, but…”
“And you’re a fortune-teller?”
Bianca poked Angela in the sides for such comment.
“I must admit that I was careless the day she came because I was closing up and wanted to go pick up my kid at school so I didn’t bother to look at her carefully. After all, she did wear sunglasses. She gave me two birthdates to match with Young Master Chu. One was Miss Sui’s and the other was…”
He reached out to take a piece of paper in front of him and jotted it down before placing it in front of Angela and Bianca. They glanced at the birthdate written on the paper real quick before looking at the fortune-teller again.
“How come you remembered the birthdate and not the face?” Angela asked.
“I was careless that day and I tend to remember numbers better than faces.”
Angela finally picked up the paper in her hand before speaking up again. “What can you tell us about this birthdate?”
“If Young Master Chu is with her, he will be jinxed for the rest of his life. In fact…”
“What?” Angela urged impatiently.
“I just mentally did a check for his birthdate right now. His luck hasn’t been very good. I don’t know if Mrs. Chu is just testing me or she might not believe me after all–like you both are still doubting me right now. I don’t blame you both since there are many hoaxes around, causing our reputations to be so tarnished by others. Anyway, his luck seems to have changed since…yesterday afternoon.”
Angela and Bianca did not know what to say to the fortune-teller anymore. They did not expect him to be so good at guessing. Yes, Angela’s stern expression might give them away but how did he guess about Jacky’s luck changing? Was he spying on Jacky?
“So…do you have anything else to ask me? If you don’t want to know, I won’t reveal anything else.”
“If we take Mrs. Chu back here, would you help us by being a witness?” Angela asked.
The fortune-teller nodded without asking them any other questions.
Angela and Bianca got up at the same time, thanking him before turning around to go back out. It was until they were outside the temple and were walking toward the parking lot that they spoke up again.
“This is too strange,” Angela said. “He’s really good at guessing but he can’t seem to remember some things. What’s with this?”
“He might be a real one that was why that girl wanted to conceal herself before coming to him?”
Angela turned to Bianca. “Don’t tell me you believe him.”
“Didn’t Jacky’s luck change?”
“He could be really lucky to have guessed right. And wouldn’t that contradict what he said earlier though? If he said that Sonia’s birthdate is very compatible to Jacky’s then why would Mrs. Chu separate them?”
Bianca shrugged her shoulders.
“The only thing that would make sense is if the sneaky girl is Jo.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Mrs. Chu is very superstitious so she will definitely listen to the fortune-teller’s words. If this birthdate…” She held the paper with the unknown birthdate up for emphasis. “…is Jo’s, then everything makes sense. She wants to switch it to her advantage.”
“That would make him a hoax though. I mean if he can’t tell one birthdate from the next.”
“Maybe because Jo’s concealing herself so he can’t tell? He was in a hurry anyway so he would just look at it and tell the results real quick before rushing off? If you want to believe him, then that’s the only explanation that could go through. Because if he’s always mixing up birthdates, would he still get customers? I’m a non-believer but I must say he has to have some talents for his customers to keep coming, right?”
By this time, they were past the parking lot already and were just about a foot from Jacky and Bianca’s cars, which were parked by the trees at the side of the temple instead of at the usual front parking lot. Angela looked up in time to see Ehlo coming her way. His smile was so cunning that made her want to deliver the usual cruel words at him if it wasn’t for the importance of the situation.
“Well?” Ehlo asked. “What did you two find out?”
They continued to Jacky’s car where Jacky, Sonia, and Wallace were waiting before either girl spoke up.
“We have some blanks to fill in,” Angela informed them.
The other three could hear her since they were by the car at that time.
“What blanks?” Wallace asked. “Are you guys playing games again?”
“You know me.”
“Then what?”
“Contradicting information.”
Angela and Bianca took turns telling the other four what they found out. Angela even included her suspicion of what could have happened. When they were finished, Angela held the unknown birthdate up for the others to see. Jacky took it from her and looked at it. His face showed signs of recognition as he turned to Angela again.
“Did I tell you’re very clever?” Jacky asked Angela.
“You mean it is Jo’s birthdate?” Bianca asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s just so predictable,” Angela said. “I mean come on now. Why would she dress up like that? She has some motives of course. Besides, who would care so much to go through such hassle? She would ‘cause she wants to secure her spot.”
“One thing that I do believe out of these stuffs,” Ehlo confessed.
Angela turned to him. “What?”
“He’s jinxed all right.”
“Whatever.”
“Come on now. You got to admit, even if that fortune-teller got careless that one time, but he was right. There’s one thing that I don’t get though.”
“What?” Jacky asked.
“If you know Jo’s birthdate, wouldn’t your mom know too? How could she get it so mixed up?”
“I know because of what I do. But she has always been secretive about it. I’m not surprised my mom wouldn’t know by now.”
“You know what’s funny? How could your mom have bought it that she’s 27? Isn’t she 24?”
“I think the most important thing we should take care of right now is prove to Mrs. Chu that Jo’s a hoax,” Angela pointed out.
“Easy, just bring her here.”
“Would she think that we conned her by paying the fortune-teller off?”
“Would she think that of her son?”
“Her son won’t do it but his friends will.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, dear fiancée.”
Angela turned on her annoyed expression. “Anyway, let’s find another way to straighten this out. I mean we need some sort of leverage before we can bring her to the fortune-teller again.”
“Get Jo to come as well so he could look at her face,” Wallace said. “If he’s good then he would know that the birthdate belongs to her, right? She probably didn’t come that day with your mom, right?”
“I don’t think so,” Jacky said.
“Let’s get out of here before the security guards make their move.”
The others nodded, knowing that they couldn’t stand there for the rest of the day.
“Oh yeah, Chen Yi and Qiao called earlier,” Jacky told Angela and Bianca. “They said they’re at Seahorse Café waiting for us.”
The girls nodded.
“Let’s get this going then,” Ehlo said.
For some reason, Ehlo and Wallace followed Angela and Bianca back to Bianca’s car instead of going with Jacky and Sonia. The girls ended up in front with the guys in the back–with Ehlo behind Bianca and Wallace behind Angela. It was until Angela buckled up her seat belt that she realized of the arrangement.
Angela wrinkled her face. “Why aren’t you guys with Jacky?”
“It would be too suicidal to watch them,” Ehlo said. “We made that mistake the first time around. Not this time. Us single people should stick together.”
Bianca gave Ehlo a look in the rearview mirror.
“Sorry, Miss Bai. I didn’t mean you.”
Bianca didn’t answer but pulled out of the spot and into the street.
“Why did you help Jacky and Sonia then?” Angela asked.
“I’m just helping my friend, okay?” Ehlo said defensively. “Would you rather see him so morbid all the time? Not to mention doing stupid stuffs like getting himself into a marriage with Jo.”
“Oooh…”
Ehlo turned to her. “What?”
“Let’s call Valerie up. She can help us think up of a plan.”
“She’s interesting but do you think she’s for real? Seriously, how would we know she’s not just using ‘help’ as an excuse to get rid of Jo before moving in on Jacky?”
“I don’t think she’s like that though.”
“Hey, I’m just your fiancé. I don’t know anything.”
Angela turned around slightly in her seat to face Ehlo. “Would you knock it off with that talk? It’s getting annoying.”
Ehlo smiled. “You mean you weren’t annoyed the first few times?”
Angela ignored him and turned around to face front again.
Ehlo turned to Wallace. “What did I say wrong?”
“I can’t help you there,” Wallace diverted himself away from the battlefield. “Just be glad she’s not driving because you would’ve been kicked off already.”
Ehlo shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at the scenery passing by again instead of starting up another argument with Angela. Somehow, Angela took a chance to call Valerie after shrugging off Ehlo’s comment.